World's Messiest Food Festivals Slide Show

Every year, on the last Wednesday of August, the small Spanish town of Buñol sees an influx of 20,000—40,000 tourists who come to participate in one of the world’s largest, messiest food fights: La Tomatina. After one dedicated soul makes it to the top of a two-story greased pole in order to drop down a ham (don’t ask, we don’t know), a gun fires and all the tens of thousands of participants lunge for the loads of tomatoes that are trucked in and everyone and everything in sight is pummeled for an hour by a reported 125 tons of squashed tomatoes.